The European figure skating championships carried on Thursday in Tallin, Estonia, even as the skating world mourned athletes who died in an aircraft collision near Washington, D.C.

Germany's Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin put themselves firmly on course for their first European figure skating title Wednesday in the pairs short program. Coming off a win at the Grand Prix Final last month,

Tara Lipinski and Tonya Harding were among those in mourning after learning figure skaters were in Wednesday's plane crash near Washington D.C.